Word Finder - overtook

definition

To pass a more slowly moving object or entity.

example

The car was so slow we were overtaken by a bus.

definition

To become greater than something else

definition

To occur unexpectedly; take by surprise; surprise and overcome; carry away

example

Our plans were overtaken by events.

At one of the post stations he overtook a convoy of Russian wounded.

I was quite ill afterward, and I wonder if retribution also overtook the turkey.

They overtook the fugitives near a lake among the mountains of Ffestiniog and summoned them to yield.

At the battle of Poitiers (1356) his father ordered him to leave the field when the battle turned against the French, and he was thus saved from the imprisonment that overtook his father.

A similar fate overtook, on the same day, the 18th of May 1809, Captain Hermann von Hermannsdorf and his small garrison, who were defending the Predil fort.

They had sighted the coast of Peloponnesus when a storm overtook them and drove them to the coast of Libya, where they were saved from a quicksand by the local nymphs.

Sebastiani, commanding the advanced guard, overtook the Russians in the act of evacuating Moscow, and agreed with the latter to observe a seven hours' armistice to allow the Russians to clear the town, for experience had shown the French that street fighting in wooden Russian townships always meant fire and the consequent destruction of much-needed shelter and provisions.

At last, however, the fate usual to statesmen in oriental countries overtook him, and he incurred the mortal displeasure of Fateh Ali Shah.

At the very beginning of the Rihsdag, in January 1660, it was noticed that the king was ill; but he spared himself as little in the council-chamber as in the battle-field, till death suddenly overtook him on the night of the 13th of February 1660, in his thirty-eighth year.

This pseudonym served to protect the book against the fate that overtook the writings of heretics, and in a Syriac version it was preserved in the Euphrates valley where the followers of Nestorius settled.

It must excite our surprise that one who used his pen so freely should have escaped the pains and penalties which invariably overtook minor offenders in the same kind.

In the north a feeling of despondency overtook Congress at the "lame and impotent conclusion" of a campaign of invasion which was expected to terminate the war by the defeat of the Confederate army, the capture of Richmond and the immediate overthrow of the Confederacy.

Washington, who had passed the winter at Valley Forge, overtook him at Monmouth, N.J., and in an action on the 28th of June both armies suffered about equal loss.

The vacillations and submissions of El Motamid did not save him from the fate which overtook his fellow-princes.

Their soldiers overtook the brothers; Yahya was slain, and Abd-ar-rahman saved himself by fleeing first to Syria and thence to northern Africa, the common refuge of all who endeavoured to get beyond the reach of the Abbasids.

They were close to the harbour when a great disappointment overtook them.

At Muhlberg in April 1547 he overtook the army of the Saxon elector.

In the troubles which overtook the Islamic empire with the accession of Othman, Egypt was greatly involved, arid it had to be reconquered from the adherents of Au for Moawiya (Moawiyah) by Amr, who in A.H.

With this answer they left the assembly, and the sultan's apology overtook them before they had passed the palace gate.'

The last half of the 19th century was, however, chiefly notable in Mauritius for the number of calamities which overtook the island.

Nor would such silence touching Paul's speedy martyrdom be disingenuous, any more than on the theory that martyrdom overtook him several years later.

The kingdom and its dependencies were also involved in the naval disasters which overtook Spain.

The larger (and heavier), falling with greater velocity, overtook and collided with the smaller (and lighter), which were thereby forced upwards.

Michael withdrew to the mountains before this overwhelming force, but, being joined by Báthory with a Transylvanian contingent, the voivode resumed the offensive, stormed Bucharest, where Sinan had entrenched a Turkish detachment, and, pursuing the main body of his forces to the Danube, overtook the rearguard and cut it to pieces, capturing enormous booty.

The Dioscuri overtook him and lay in wait in a hollow oak.

Grenada, with cocoa as its staple, has not experienced similar depression to that which overtook the sugar-growing islands of the West Indies.

Death overtook him at Middleburg, as he was conveying the body of his son Samuel home for burial.

But the speed of some of the tanks was so slow that the advancing infantry overtook them.

So, as a Middle lane moron should, he slowly but surely accelerated and then overtook, at an excruciatingly slow pace.

I eventually overtook two into front to be overtaken by a wee guy pushing big gears.

But this Mogul visitation was most calamitous; forty persons, indeed, are stated to have alone survived the general massacre of 1232, and as a similar catastrophe overtook the city at the hands of Timur in 1398, when the local dynasty of Kurt, which had succeeded the Ghorides in eastern Khorasan, was put an end to, it is astonishing to find that early in the 15th century Herat was again flourishing and populous, and the favoured seat of the art and literature of the East.

The feud which set Pharisee and Sadducee against one another is ignored, and generally the condign oblivion which overtook this sect of the Jews is already beginning.

Michael withdrew to the mountains before this overwhelming force, but, being joined by Báthory with a Transylvanian contingent, the voivode resumed the offensive, stormed Bucharest, where Sinan had entrenched a Turkish detachment, and, pursuing the main body of his forces to the Danube, overtook the rearguard and cut it to pieces, capturing enormous booty.

Zherkov touched his horse with the spurs; it pranced excitedly from foot to foot uncertain with which to start, then settled down, galloped past the company, and overtook the carriage, still keeping time to the song.

After dinner, she rushed head long after Anna Mikhaylovna and, dashing at her, flung herself on her neck as soon as she overtook her in the sitting room.

One soldier moved and then another and soon the whole battalion ran forward shouting "Hurrah!" and overtook him.

Nicholas overtook the first sleigh.

The squadron overtook and passed the infantry and the battery--which had also quickened their pace--rode down a hill, and passing through an empty and deserted village again ascended.

He could already see how these men, who looked so small at the foot of the hill, jostled and overtook one another, waving their arms and their sabers in the air.

But not far from Bald Hills he again came out on the road and overtook his regiment at its halting place by the dam of a small pond.

By the 1930s, however, modernism overtook the simplicity of the Mission style, and Art Deco became all the rage in interior design.

As the decade wore on, sparkle and shine overtook the free flowing baby doll dressed of the 1960's.

It was not a good day for crime for the mugger as the erstwhile crime fighter - Jack Osbourne - soon overtook him.

Yes, 2006 marked the "Year of the Yorkie," as the tiny Yorkshire Terrier overtook the Golden Retriever and German Shepherd Dog in registration statistics to become the second most popular dog in the nation.

A sudden shiver overtook her as she felt a distinct chill in the air.

Not long after the release of this song, gangsta rap overtook mainstream hip hop while political hip hop largely moved underground.

Thus Wraeththu were thought to be similar to vampires by the humanity they overtook.

He couldn't bring himself to look down before a wave of dizziness overtook him.

A large group overtook them outside of Durango and they became separated in the pack as she became caught up in a blur of color and then was gone.

Sirian didn't return, but Hilden rushed in soon after darkness overtook the skies.